Thursday, September 10, 2015

Bangalore Real Estate

It is an established fact that property prices around any city or town in a developing country will always be increasing. Industrial and commercial activities attract people to the urban areas in large numbers. The rising demand for commercial and residential land causes the cities to swell upwards through multi-storied buildings, and outward through the development of sub-urban areas. This observable fact is evident in all urban areas around the globe. Property prices are bound to increase along with economic progress. But the rate of increase can vary considerably from one place to another.

Persons who are considering fixed, short term or long term investments in urban and sub-urban areas should make a detailed study of the causes for existing prices in the particular area they have in mind. Speculative investments may trigger a sharp increase in prices though there are no specific reasons to warrant the rate of increase.

A general guideline that can be applied to assess whether a specific rise in real estate prices at a specific place is warranted or not, is to check the proportionate rise in demand for industrial, commercial and residential areas around that place.

Looked among the largest growing cities in the world, Bangalore city has seen a sharp increase in property prices over the past couple of decades. The industrial development of the suburbs has led to the rise of a large number of affluent businessmen, professionals and upper middle class in the city, the majority of them not local residents.

The rapid development of the information technology (IT) sector is mainly credited for the high rate of increase in property prices over the recent years, but the real expansion started during the 1970s with the development of huge industrial areas beyond the suburbs of the city. This gave rise to increased demand for commercial space in the central business district of the city. The surrounding residential areas were encroached into and this resulted in the outward expansion of the city. Locations that were once considered far outside the city limits have now become fashionable & lucrative residential areas. The success and expansion of the IT industry increased the demand for commercial and residential space within the old city area, and this led to the upward expansion of Bangalore through high rise structures, and the process is still going on.

Current Trends

To ensure that the land is available at reasonable rates for a healthy development of the city, the state government is taking procedures to check further congestion within the old city limits, while at the same time providing infrastructure for proper development in the outskirts. Zoning restrictions have been implemented to thwart haphazard development. Strict action is being taken to curtail the nefarious activities of unscrupulous real estate dealers, who produce forged title deeds and other documents to fraudulently sell property that belongs to others. Even there have been many cases cropping up wherein government lands were illegally disposed of in this manner. While genuine property developers are encouraged, speculators have been restrained from indiscriminately raising property prices. The government policy is to ensure that property, whether built up or as land, is available at reasonable rates.

To control escalating prices of land in the outskirts of the city, the Karnataka state government has implemented guidelines for fixing the value of land wi thin the six taluks (rural di vi s ions) surrounding Bangalore. The present outskirts refer to places which are about 25-50 kilometers away from the city, beyond Devanahalli, Whitefield, Sarjapur, Electronic City, Hoskote, Kanakpura, Kengeri, Bannerghatta, etc. Property rates had escalated from 50% to 100% within a short period of time. The taluks (rural divisions) are Devanahalli, Doddaballapur, Hoskote, Kanakapura, Nelamangala and Ramanagaram. The BMRDA is developing 5 integrated townships in the outskirts at Bidadi, Ramanagar, Sathanur, Solur and Nandagudi on 60,000 acres of land at an estimated cost of Rs. 20,000 crore. HDFC Realty Fund and Sterling Developers intend to setup a township in Whitefield.

The long term measures being taken to organize traffic clogging incorporate the National Highways Authority of India plan for an access controlled section on the Tumkur road, the 4-lane airport link expressway for which 300 acres of land costing about 350 crores is to be acquired, the state government and BMRDA funded 350 crore 30 km expressway connecting the city to the new airport coming up at Devanahalli, the BMRDA plan to set up a Satellite Town Ring Road, Intermediate Ring Roads and Radial roads to tie them. Another major development is the approval of the Central cabinet for the proposed Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) which is planned to cover 33 kms in two corridors.